Hulling pumpkin seeds

[Mom-ninja.]

I'd like to hull our pumpkin seeds this year. Online I've read articles that say roast first, crush shells, then boil and the seeds will fall to the bottom of the pan.

 

Another article says boil first and then squeeze the seeds out.

 

Anyone hull pumpkin seeds successfully?

[Jean in Newcastle]

We just roast them and eat them, hulls and all.  

[Mom-ninja.]

Done that. We don't like it.

[Rosie_0801]

This year I'm going to try growing pumpkins that have hull-less seeds to avoid that problem.

[kbutton]

I would stick with roasted or possibly roasted and then soaked (I don't remember noticing a striking difference between the two methods). The hulls get slippery when wet (even after being cleaned and roasted), so if you soak them, you'll want to rub them dry with a towel to get the slick surface off. Nick the end of the hulls with a knife. You want to break a tip of hull off and/or crack the hull. Then carefully slide the tip of the knife under the hull toward the middle of the seed. Once you have as much hull over the tip of the knife as you can get, peel toward the edge of seed. If you are lucky, one whole side will pop off (or mostly so). Sometimes you can pop the seed out in one try. You might have to slip the knife under one side, peel, and then slip it under the other side. Once you get going, it gets easier and takes fewer motions. It takes a long time, but NONE of the tricks worked for us. I don't like eating the hulls, and the recipe I wanted the seeds for would have been icky with the hulls in. A few seeds stick very stubbornly to the hull no matter what. You might nick those with the knife, and then throw them back into some water to soak.